Govt reviewing laws on the environment
JAKARTA (JP): The government considers the possibility of revising laws on the management of living environment as they are considered to be no longer suitable with current condition.
"We have established a team to review the Law No. 4/1982 on the basic provisions for management of the living environment," State Minister of Environment/Chairman of the Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedal) Sarwono Kusumaatmadja said yesterday.
A more comprehensive and integral law on the management of living environment is badly needed in the current reckless exploitation of natural resources and the environment, as a result of the increasing economic activities, industrial developments, technological changes and international trade activities.
Sarwono said in a written statement, which was read by deputy chairman of Bapedal P.L. Coutrier at the opening of a Conference and Workshop on Environmental Auditing in Asia and the Indonesian Strategy for Sustainable Development, that the existing law on the management of the living environment is already out of date.
The minister said that in addition to the review of the existing law, his office is currently also preparing a ministerial decree concerning the implementation of environmental auditing.
He said the adoption of environmental auditing is an important contribution to maintaining competitiveness of the country's industry in the world market. It could be done by introducing environmental policies on cleaner production, waste minimization and eco-labeling.
Sarwono said conducting environmental audits in an industrial company with minimum use of resources for its products, will reduce the company's production cost and improve the energy efficiency.
He said the implementation of such audits will improve the public's view of the company's image and enable the firm to gain competitive advantages in green consumers' market.
He also said the environmental audits will internally increase awareness and responsibility of company managers and staff toward better environmental practices.
However, he said the qualifications and practice of the Indonesian environmental auditors must match international standards in order to get international acknowledgement.
Voluntary
Coutrier told reporters after the opening ceremony that the environmental auditing would be implemented as a voluntary activity, not a mandatory one.
The environmental auditing, however, will become mandatory if business and industrial activities in certain companies are suspected to endanger the public or public interest, he said.
In this case the State Minister of Environment/Chairman of Bapedal may require the suspected parties to conduct and submit the audit results, he added.
Coutrier also supports the minister's statement on the outdated law as it does not include regulations on concessions in the development of timber estates (HTI).
He said the law does not even mention a single rule on integrated environmental impact analysis. (imn)